What is Siri? The Siri App is a personal data assistant for iOS compatible devices such as the iPhone. You can ask Siri to perform task such as making phone calls, sending messages, or setting reminders. You can ask Siri questions about news, sports, and weather. This article provides dozens of questions to ask Siri.

Do you know of questions to ask Siri that are not list? Please share your Siri App questions in the comments section below.

How to Use Siri – Configure Siri Settings

To see how to use Siri, how to turn Siri on, or how to configure Siri settings, see the steps below:

Navigate to Siri Settings: Go to Settings > General > Siri.

Change the Siri setting to the “On” position, indicated by a green switch.

Change the Allow “Hey Siri” setting to “On” if you want to access Siri hands free.*

Select your preferred language and gender. Select “Always” for the Voice Feedback setting. For the My Info setting, select your contact book profile (create one if it doesn’t existing).

To use the Siri App, press and hold the home button until you here the audible prompt, speak your command or ask your question, then release the home button.

Alternatively, you can use Siri by releasing the home button before giving your voice command. Note that this method is slower than the one mentioned above.

If you turned on the Allow “Hey Siri” setting, you can access Siri by saying “Hey Siri”. Note that this only works when your device is connected to power, unless you have an iPhone 6s or higher.

Siri Questions for Calls, Messaging, and Contacts

See Siri commands for defining relationships, making calls, and sending/retrieving email and text messages (SMS).

Define Relationships between you and your contacts

“Call me Roy”

“My wife is ‘Kerry Washington'”

“My brother is ‘Justin Bieber'”

“Alicia Keys’ is my mom”

“My boss name is ‘Sean Combs'”

“My dad is ‘Andrew Bachelor'”

Ask Siri to search Contacts

“When is my wife’s birthday?”

“What’s Justin’s address?”

“What is my father’s phone number?”

“Who is Sean Combs?”

“Show Alicia ‘s home email address”

“Show Justin Bieber”

“Find people named Kardashian”

Ask Siri to make a Phone Call or FaceTime

“Call Justin”

“Call my wife on mobile”

“Call home”

“Call my mother on her work phone”

“Call 703 555 1212”

“Redial last number”

“Return missed call”

“Call back my last missed call”

“Siri, should I call Sean?”

“Get my call history”

“Call 911”

Ask Siri to make a FaceTime Call

“FaceTime Andrew “

“FaceTime audio Andrew “

“FaceTime video Andrew “

“Make a FaceTime call to Andrew “

Ask Siri to Send Text Messages (SMS)

“Send a message to my Justin”

“Send a message to Sean saying ‘Let’s sign the new record deal tonight'”

“Send a message to Kerry on her mobile saying ‘I am running late'”

“Text my mom and dad saying ‘Let’s have dinner tomorrow evening'”

“Text Sharon and Becky saying ‘Where are you?'”

“Send a message to 301 555 1212”

Ask Siri to Read Text Messages (SMS)

“Read my new messages”

“Read it again”

Ask Siri to Reply to Text Messages

“Reply ‘I love you too'”

“Reply ‘I will arrive in 10 minutes'”

“Call him on mobile”

Ask Siri about Voice Mail

“Check my voice mail”

“Do I have new voice mail?”

“Play my last voice mail”

“Play the last voicemail from Pam”

“Play voice mail from Kerry”

Ask Siri to Send Email Messages

“New email to Sean Combs”

“Email Kerry and Lisa and say ‘I am going out of town this weekend'”

“Email mom about the trip”

“Mail Justin about the concert tickets”

Ask Siri to Check Email Messages

“Check email”

“Read my last email”

“Do I have any new messages?”

“Any new email from my boss today?”

“Show the email from Kerry yesterday”

“Show new mail about the football game”

Ask Siri to Respond to Email Messages

“Reply ‘Hey Kerry, let’s watch Scandal tonight”

“Call him at work”

Ask Siri About Messages

“Read my notifications”

Ask Siri to Locate Friends and Family

“Where is my wife?”

“Is my wife at home?”

“Where is my Justin?”

“Where are all my friends?”

“Who is near me?”

Siri Productivity Questions

See Siri commands related to reminders, manage lists and notes, and set alarms and timers.

Siri Commands for Calendar

“Schedule a meeting with Sean tomorrow at 1 PM”

“Schedule a conference call with Justin today at 7 PM”

“Schedule a meeting about the new acquisition at 1 PM”

“schedule meeting about renovations at 2PM tomorrow in the conference room

“Set up a meeting at 10 AM”

“Set up a meeting with Brian at 11 AM”

“New appointment with Andrew Tuesday at noon”

“Meet with Kerry at 6”

Ask Siri to change events

“Reschedule 7 PM meeting to 9 PM”

“Reschedule my 10 AM meeting today”

“Reschedule my appointment with Dr. Manning to next Monday at 9am”

“Move my 2pm meeting to 3:30 PM”

“Add Andrew to 3:30 meeting”

“Add Alicia to meeting with Andrew”

“Cancel the new acquisition meeting”

Ask Siri about your events

“What’s on my calendar today?

“What’s on my calendar tomorrow?

“What’s on my calendar for Friday?”

“When is my next meeting”

“Where is my next meeting?”

“When is my next appointment?”

“When am I meeting with Justin?”

Contextual Reminders (Remind me About This)

Most of Apple’s apps support this feature. For example, you can ask the Siri App to remind you about a web page you’re looking at in Safari, a specific location in Maps, a text message in Messages, a contact card in Contacts, your last edited document in Apple’s office suite, and more.

“Remind me about this”

“remind me about this in an hour”

“Remind me about this when I get home”

“Remind me about this when I get to the car”

“Remind me about this email Friday at noon”

“Remind me about ‘this place’ when I get in the car”

Ask Siri to set a Reminder

“Remind me to check the mailbox”

“Remember to stop by the bank”

Time based reminders

“Remind me to call mom at 7 PM”

“Remind me to walk the dogs at 7am tomorrow”

“Remind me to leave work at 4 PM”

Location based reminders

“Remind me to water the flowers when I get home”

“Remind me to stop by the dry cleaners when I leave work”

“Remember to pick up dry cleaning next Friday”

“Remind me to call Kerry when I leave”

“Remind me to call Barry when I get to work”

Ask Siri to Create and Find Notes

“Create note: Door pass code is one two three two”

“Note that I spent $25 on dinner”

“Create song list note

“Find my song list note”

“Add Alicia Keys to my song list note”

Ask Siri to check the time

“What time is it?”

“What day is it?”

“What is today’s date?”

“What time is it in New York?”

“What time is it in Belgium?”

“What’s the date this Friday?”

Ask Siri to set or change Alarms

“Set an alarm for 7 AM”

“Wake me up tomorrow at 5 AM”

“Wake me up on weekdays at 6 AM”

“Wake me up on weekends at 10 AM”

“Wake me up in 3 hours”

“Change my 7 AM alarm to 6:30 AM”

“Show all alarms”

“Turn off my 6:30 alarm”

“Delete my 6:30 alarm”

“Turn off all alarms”

Ask Siri to use a Timer

“Set the timer for 10 minutes”

“Show the timer”

“Reset the timer”

“Stop the timer”

“Resume the timer”

“Change timer”

Siri On the Go Questions

Ask Siri for Maps and Directions

“Where am I?”

“How do I get home?”

“Directions to home”

“Directions to my Sean’s home”

“Take me to my wife”

“Show my current location”

“Show me Union Station”

“Give me public transit directions to the Union Station”

“Show me directions from Washington DC to Philadelphia Pennsylvania”

“Are we there yet?”

“What’s my ETA?”

Ask Siri about Restaurants

“Show me restaurant information for Cheesecake Factory in Arlington”

“Show me reviews for Cheesecake Factory in Arlington”

“I need a reservation tonight at Cheesecake Factory tonight”

“Show me good seafood restaurants near me”

“Table for four in Washington DC Friday Night”

Siri Questions For Local Businesses

“Find pizza near me”

“Find coffee near me”

“Where’s a good Chinese place around here?”

“Find Starbucks near me”

“Good Mexican restaurants near me”

“What’s the best restaurant in Arlington?”

“Find a gas station near me”

“I’m running low on gas”

“Show me the closest hospital”

“I need a good plumber”

“Show ATMs near me”

“Is there a pharmacy near me?”

“I need some aspirin”

“Show me the nearest WiFi hotspots”

“Find a happy hour nearby”

“What time does Burger King close?”

“Where’s a good inexpensive place to eat around here?”

“Find me a place to eat where I can sit outside”

“Where’s a good hair salon?”

Math and Conversions

“What is 71 x 2?”

“What is 2 to the 8th power?”

“What is the square root of 144?”

“What’s an 18% tip on $85?”

“What is the tip on $220?”

“How much is $100 in Canadian dollars?”

“What is 32 degrees Fahrenheit in Celsius?”

“How many cups in a liter?”

“How many ounces in a cup?”

Siri Questions for Entertainment

Apple Music Siri Commands

Here are some Apple Music Siri Commands we have found so far. More to come.

App Settings

Home Kit Macro Commands

“Good Night” (turn off all lights in the living room, dining room, etc.)

Home Kit Device Commands

“Lock the front door”

“Set the brightness of the bedroom lights to 40%”

“Set temperature to 68 degrees”

“Turn off lights in living room”

“Turn the master bedroom lights all the way up”

Accessibility

“Show Accessibility Settings”

“Turn on Voice Over”

“Turn Off Voice Over”

Share your Tips on How to Use Siri

Know of any cool and useful Siri Commands List not listed above? Share your Siri Questions with us in the comments section below. Also check out the Siri Commands video below. The video contains some additional tips on how to use Siri.

Quentin Moore is the creator and senior editor of Tech Ranker. He's a self proclaimed Tech Guru and spends most of his non-working hours playing with or blogging about tech gadgets. Check out Quentin's Google Plus Page.

128 Responses

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Having some unexpected music playing on my laptop I asked SIRI to identify it. SIRI couldn’t. I then tried a lot of other music (using quality orchestras / performers etc, not way-out variations) but SIRI couldn’t identify much. The original enquiry was about a Vivaldi Seasons piece, then I tried Bond, Amedeus, La Cygne (opera), l’Italiano (light Italian pop), Chabrier’s España

It did identify some Rachmaninoff, got the conductor right and orchestra wrong – I call that as OK
As for Khachaturian’s Spartacus by the RPO it gave a Brasilian name and some very different orchestra (translated it was Spartacus)

This is such a great article with so many things I didn’t know . Thank you. I have one question. If Siri does a web search for me and comes up with various articles to read and I click on one, how do I get back to Siri to show me the other articles I would like to read? I tried everything but couldn’t find any info. Thanks a million for any expertise and advice.?

I had the same question and found answer was provided with a later Siri update. Open Siri but before you ask the question scroll up the screen and it shows your most recent search result list. If after selecting a result you want to return to the list press the back key but I haven’t tested this I just opened Siri again and scrolled up.

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id like to know of a way to start timer via Siri-then stop timer for that time interim and ‘name’ what that time slot was used for ie meeting with Jack 1pm to 1:23 pm. Charge to his acct or something similar.
It should be do-able, No?
Dayle

Your text commands are rather verbose. It’s not necessary to be so explicit. The commands can be much simpler. E.g.:

“Tell Justin that this is a test message”
“Tell Sean Let’s sign the new record deal tonight”
“Tell Kerry’s mobile I am running late”
“Tell my mom and dad Let’s have dinner tomorrow evening”
“Ask Sharon and Becky Where are you?”
“Tell 301 555 1212 this is a test message″

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I wouldn’t mind producing a post or elaborating on a lot of
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Somehow I accidentally turned on my Siri on my iphone 6. ANd I can’t figure how to turn it off. What did I do and in the future, How do I turn Siri on when I want to use it and off when I don’t need to use it? Any help?

Great list, Quentin, thanks!
What i fail to find – here or through Google – is if and how my mum, who can’t use her hands anymore, can accept my incoming Facetime call using Siri. Since it’s possible to initiate a Facetime call by voice, it seems logical it’s also possible to accept one by voice, but I can’t discover how. Thanks so much for your help!

Your mom can have Siri answer using voice commands with hey siri. It is available under IOS 8.1 or later and can be set under the Siri controls in settings. Also, for hey Siri to work the iPad or iPhone has to be plugged in.

““Turn on flashlight” also got me a “Sorry, but I’m not able to do that” reply on my iPhone 6+ iOS 8.4.1. Same for variations such as “Turn on my flashlight”, “Turn on the flashlight”, “Flashlight on”, etc

tried that and I say “factory reset phone” and a window then pops up and says I have no sim card (which I don’t) and I then would have to touch the screen OK. Touch screen broken so cant do that. Any other suggestions?
thanks

You can do a restore through itunes you can download a restore of your ios through many websites put the phone in recovery mode then connect it to itunes hold shift if your using windows when you select restore and you can chose which file to restore.i think its control in mac ios that you have to hold.to go inti recovery mode power off the phone somehow and hold home button and power for 10 sec then let off power while holding home still.

One time I read that suicide was illegal in the US and I was curious and wanted to know if it was true, so I asked Siri and instead of answering she asked if I wanted to call a Suicide Hotline. Obviously I said no but she dialed it anyway.

Go to SETTINGS >>>> GENERAL >>>>> ACCESSIBILITY >>>>> ZOOM >>>>> and then (a) turn on ZOOM and (b) drag the MAXIMUM ZOOM LEVEL slider (bottom of screen) all the way to the right.
Before leaving that screen, suggest trying both of the ZOOM REGION settings.
If even greater magnification is desired, go back to ACCESSIBILITY. Go to >>>>> LARGER TEXT and then (a) turn on LARGER ACCESSIBILITY SIZES and (b) drag the slider all the way to the right.

I was at a Luke Bryan concert yesterday and dropped my iphone 5s down 2 very large flights of stadium steps. while my iphone did not crack (my some miracle) the hardware is completely shot and the screen isn’t working. However, I can still receive updates, texts, phone calls and all other things, I just can’t use the screen. Does anyone know of a way to get siri to send an email with pictures or to get her to back up my phone since I can’t manually do it ?

THANK YOU!!! Just got an iPhone 5c (never had Siri before) and this is EXACTLY the list I need! Thank you so much for taking the time to create this post! You have help not only me but my techno-illiterate mother as well 🙂

Can I use Siri to add text to family photos. I want to record family history by using my iPad to capture documents and photos etc, and speak the accompanying text to be saved with each individual image. Is there an app for this perhaps?

Yes. Turn on VoiceOver in Settings > General > Accessibility. Learning VoiceOver takes some doing. I would google for some instruction since the phone will operate different but gives great feedback. Additionally, without VoiceOver on, using headphones gives certain audible feedback as well.

This is a good list, but I must add for amusement sake that you can ask siri some rather lude questions, for which I will not give examples due to mixed company, but if you’re curious, come up with some of the most inappropriate things you can ask Siri and see what kind of witty retorte you get. Even just try saying “I love you” or “What are you wearing?” lol

Is there any way to update a location for a company that has moved I wanted to go to Tandy Leather Factory in Las Vegas NV and sent me. To the old location I realized halfway there what she was doing and updated to the new location

Siri is also helpful, for example, if you are having a text conversation with an intelligent person who uses big words, and you might not know the definition of a particular word every once in a while. I can quickly hold down on the home button and ask Siri “definition of ubiquitous” and she immediately shows the definition (without having to search the web for it) and I can quickly respond to the text without appearing to be a moron. 🙂

Yes, simply say “open parenthesis” and “close parenthesis” at the precise moment during dictating when you want them inserted. Same with “colon,” “semicolon,” “comma,” “ellipsis” (“dot dot dot” also works), “open quote,” “close quote,” “hyphen,” (speak “high hyphen tech” to get “high-tech,” “dash,” and just about any other punctuation marks you can think of work this way. Good annunciation, of course, is important. One funny drawback to doing this A LOT is that I’ve occasionally found myself saying “comma” mid-sentence while having a face-to-face conversation with someone. LOL.

What if you need it to actually type dash, or dot? Like what if I wanted to say “I need you to dash to the store”? Of course some will tell me “Just say, ‘I need you to run to the store'”, but I am just giving that as an example. What if I needed to say “After 4th period we will have lunch”… yet Siri writes that as “After forth . we will have lunch”. Is there a way to get it to type the word rather than put the punctuation?

What are the properties of chartreuse?
What is the nutritional information for a bowl of Cheerios?
Earthquakes, Hawaii, 1985
cumulonimbus cloud
How many degrees are in 3 radians?
What is the wavelength of 500MHz?
What is the molecular structure of corundum?
What notes are in a B minor chord?
What is “No school tomorrow” in Morse Code?
What is the molecular weight of caffeine?

When I Googled about this a while back, I saw that Siri doesn’t save drafts. If you asked Siri to send an email and it was never received, I’m afraid that your email is lost. I suggest that you ask this question in the Apple Support Forums to find out for certain.

Is there a way to turn OFF shuffle or repeat with Siri? When I’m driving, I want to play an album from start to finish without repeat and without shuffling. But if my last settings were with shuffle or repeat turned on, when I ask siri to play an album or an artist, those settings are carried over. It’s maddening that I cannot do this.

Yes! I have iPhone 5 and if I hold the home button, Siri will come on and is send a message to Dennis. She will tell you she found it, what do i want to say, I tell her and she says do you want me to send it!

When I word the command “Play album Paradise Theater,” Siri plays it without shuffle even if I had it on previously. This also works for playlists, I just say “Play Car Trip.” Just tested by turning on shuffle to be sure, and in both cases it turned off the shuffle setting.

This feature can be used for just about any location. I’ve entered the address of my usual grocery store and occasionally tell Siri “remind me to get milk and eggs when I am at Bottom Dollar Grocery Store.” When I’m within a block of the store she reminds me. Or, “remind me to renew my driver’s license when I am at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. As long as the particular BMV I frequently drive by (and continually forget to go in and renew) is entered in my contacts with an address, as I drive within a block of it the next time I’m passing by, she’ll note how close I am to it and remind me.